I mean, when you heard about the Boston Marathon and you thought/said, “They’ll be in my prayers”, did you really get down on your knees that day and say, “God, please bless the runners.”
When someone dies and you say “You’ll be in my prayers,” do you really kneel by your bed and say, “God, please protect my friend.”
When you find out someone is non-Christian, do you really kneel and say “Please guide my atheist/Hindu/Buddhist friend to Christianity?”
Does anyone?
Yes. In the morning, in the evening, every day I pray to God on behalf of my friends and family and anyone I know of who is in need. Some days that’s just about everybody. If nothing else, this helps keep them in my memory, and I’m more inclined to check up on them to see if I can be of any help. But, no, I don’t pray that people will be lead into Christianity. I’m not so sure that just because that’s my path, it’s everybody’s. (My mantra’s something like: “I’ve been wrong before.”)
Yep. (Why else would you say it?)
Well, I don’t say it, and I don’t pray, so I was really curious.
Your third question is really weird - do you think that only Christians pray for other people, or are all three of your questions only directed at Christians?
I have never heard anyone but Christians say they will pray for other people. Maybe other religions do it, but I’ve never heard of it.
Hindus certainly don’t pray for other people, for example. All moral and just paths lead to God, so what would be the point?
I don’t pray but most of the people I know who say things like you’re in my prayers do. I was very excited as a kid when my parents stopped saying bedtime prayers with me because my mom’s list is effing long. And the way we worked it was that if you forgot to mention someone when going down your list, well, god doesn’t work for the DMV and intent is what counts.
I’m agnostic and don’t pray or tell people I’ll pray for them, but the rare times someone asks me to pray for them and I agree to, I do say a quick prayer. That’s probably kind of weird.
When I was very small, my mother would help me say my prayers each night. I had to pray for my family, mostly, but I also remember her having me pray for specific children she heard about on the news. I remember praying for a baby who they tried to transplant a baboon’s heart into, for one. Also, the girl who fell down a well in the '80s.
No. I don’t know anyone who kneels by the bed, but if they do that’s up to them. But I pray silently and I keep the people I pray for at the front of my mind. I guess you could say that I pray by thinking about people. I don’t feel that I need a well-worded plea to God, out loud. He knows what I’m thinking.
What?! No.
Jews certainly do. “Praying for” other people doesn’t necessarily mean praying that they find god or convert. It can be as simple as hoping for their comfort in times of stress or sickness or suffering.
I can’t speak for Hinduism since I’m not very familiar with the religion, but I’d be genuinely surprised to find out that they absolutely never pray for the sake of other people.
I do, and I often do it pretty much as soon as I say it so I don’t forget. I’m Catholic, I’m also fairly utilitarian. It doesn’t have to be a big production with kneeling, it’s praying by way of my thinking it in my head.
Oh man, I meant “I do” for the first two questions. The third question would never occur to me. Why would I do that?
Sorry, you’re right, I was conflating the two. Yes, Hindus pray for other people. They do not, however, pray that other people convert to Hinduism. They do:
“hope for their comfort in times of stress or sickness or suffering”
ETA: I did once have a woman tell me she would pray that I found Jesus. I was sooooooooo tempted to snark at her (What, is he lost?), but I behaved myself.
All of this.
Well if I said that, I would. But I don’t really pray, so I say, “you’re in my thoughts.”
I try. If I say “I will pray for you”, I tend to do that at the first opportunity, if not immediately. If I say “I will keep you in my prayers”, this is an area where I tend to fail. I mean well when I say it, but don’t keep a list and tend to forget.
I don’t tend to pray for non-believers to “become Christian”. I have prayed that God would open the eyes of certain friends to His Truth, but mostly I ascribe to the philosophy “Always witness for Christ, use words only when necessary”. IOW, I try to live in such a way that it is obvious I conform to the teachings of Jesus. If I have to tell people, I’m not doing a very good job of showing them!
If I say I will pray for someone, I generally say a quick prayer right then. I don’t really do the whole kneeling down, fold you hands, close your eyes sort of praying unless I’m at church or someplace. I tend to be more casual in my conversations with God.
I don’t usually pray for people to convert or anything. Sometimes, if someone is truly unhappy, I pray they find a better way or better path than the one they are one.
Actually, we prayed about the Boston Marathon bombing at our church council meeting. We prayed for the people injured, the families of those who were killed, and so that we could forgive those who committed the bombing. We repeated the part from the Lord’s Prayer where He taught us to pray “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”.
I don’t always kneel. My church does a fast once a month, with a specific prayer emphasis. Then, I kneel down when I pray for whatever is the focus. This is because I replace meals during the fast with prayer.
But if I say I am going to pray for someone, I do it. I have a list, as a matter of fact.
Yes. I pray for conversions a fair amount. Usually it is for groups. If I am praying for some individual, I usually pray that I be guided by the Spirit in witnessing to them.
Regards,
Shodan
My answer is the same as Delphica’s. I have a small group of individuals I pray for daily, but not down on my knees in a “God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy” kind of way. My prayers are usually more like “Lord, help John Watson not strangle Sherlock”, or “Watch over Professor X as he goes up against Magneto”. I don’t pray for conversion, leaving a person’s relationship with God their business.
StG
I do pray, but I tend not to say I will unless I’m speaking to someone personally about something they’re going through. But if I know someone who is going through something who could use the help of some divine intervention, I’ll pray for them even if I haven’t told them I will.
I do find it somewhat offputting whenever I hear people, after some tragedy, publicize to the world on Facebook or wherever that the people who have been suffering are “in my thoughts and prayers”. I’m cynical, but it strikes me that just by saying that, most of those people have fulfilled their “thought and prayer” obligation, and probably never do anything more about it. Especially when they reduce their comment to just “Thoughts and prayers”. Like, “I’m going to use shorthand to let you think I’ll pray for you, because it takes too much effort to write it all out”.